Different
by A.Friend410
Summary: When a seven year old Hiccup realizes that he's different after a childhood game, it takes a mother's love for her child to show him otherwise.


**A/N: I guess you can take this as a squeal to "A Little Trouble Maker." but you don't need to read it first to read this one all I ask is that you read and review.**

**Different**

A young seven year old sat on the beach with a stick in his hands scribbling a picture in the fine grain. He sniffled as he rubbed a tear off his freckled cheek. He always knew he was a little smaller and more observant than the other children were, but he never thought of himself as different until one of them pointed it out to him. The pitiful thing about it was it started off like any other day.

They were playing a game they made up called 'Hunt the Dragon'. He was always the dragon while the others were the hunters. He had thought he was going to win this time since it was the first time he was able to swing his limbs over the branches of a tree to hide in its foliage. The game was simple, capture the dragon the hunters win, but if the dragon steals his treasure back, he would win. The treasure in this care was a small wooden sculpture of a doe and its fawn that his mother gave him from his last voyage.

Lucky for him he knew exactly where they kept it, which was under his cousin's helmet. He held onto the branch as tight as his small limbs could waiting for them to follow his tracks, which they could easily and always do. When he heard them come up the trial he froze and when they were right underneath him, more specifically his cousin Snotlout, he took a deep breath and launched himself at the boy. He caught them all off guard and as his small frame tackled his cousin's larger one he pulled off his helmet and grabbed his treasure. He was thrown off the other boy as if he was riding a bucking yak, but as he pealed open his green eyes to look at his arms he was happily surprise.

"I won," he said in a whisper, until it fully sunk in and he stood up holding his prize above his head cheering," I WON!"

His cousin unfortunately was not as excited as the weaker younger one, "no fair you cheated," and he snatched the figuring from his grasp.

The younger cousin glared," how did I cheat?"

"Because dragons don't attack like that!"

"Yes they do!"

Snotlout's face was becoming red with anger as he screamed, "Dragons don't come out of trees they fly and you don't fly so that means you cheated!" and he raised the statue over his head and then brought it down to his knee. "So you lose, loser!" and he tossed the broken pieces at his stunned family member. They all walked away laughing as he fell to his knees trying not to cry. He stared at the broken pieces of wood touching the part of where it was the doe, at least her head and ran his fingers over the part of where he ear broke off. His bottom lip quivered and when he went to reach for the second piece he felt another hand on it.

Looking up he saw that it was one of his friends handing the second piece to his now puzzled statue. He smiled taking it and was about to say thank you to the girl with the blonde braid, but when she had a serious look in her blue eyes he stopped, "Hiccup maybe you shouldn't be playing with us anymore."

"What do you mean Astrid?" he asked not understanding.

The girl sighed trying to be nice to the frail boy, "I mean you're not like us Hiccup, you're different."

"Different?"

She nodded, "yeah so next time you want to play maybe you should find some other group of kids." She left the boy sitting on the forest floor trying to figure out how to fix his wooden statue and his place in the village because they both knew all too well there was no other kids that he could possibly play with.

So there he was sitting on the beach drawing in the sand, his figuring in a satchel he had beside him all because he was different from the rest of the tribe's children. Sniffling once more he finish his small doddle of a mother deer and her fawn. Only when he heard footsteps coming up from the beach did his green eyes sparkle once again. He shot up and ran towards the person calling out, "mom!" The seven year old crashed into her wrapping his small arms around her waist earning an 'oof' sound from her.

"So this is where my little trouble maker has been hiding," she ran her fingers through his auburn hair. "What did you catch on fire this time since I've been gone?"

He blushed and mumbled, "nothing, but I always seem to burn mutton when cooking."

Val laughed as they began to walk back to where he was sitting before, "I can never cook it right either." When they sat down on the sand she began to tell stories of her voyage to her son. He always loved his mother's tales of adventure and soaked them up like a sponge, and she always brought him back gifts every time.

Speaking of which the kid looked up at his parent and asked, "Did you bring me anything?"

"Always to the point aren't you?" she smiled and dug through her sack, "I think I might actually have something here you'll like if your drawing in the sand is any proof." She pulled out a leather bind book and handed it to him. Hiccup excitedly looked through it only to frown realizing there were only blank pages inside.

"Mom, where's the story?"

She laughed, "It's a journal Hiccup. It's so you can write your own story or draw whatever your heart desires." When realizing this he hugged his mother tightly thanking her for her gift. Continuing with her adventures her son listen even more closely than before. When she was done he began to tell her what happen in his life while she was away. He ended the story with happen today with the game and showed her the broken figuring. Sadly though he had a question that was still floating around in his brain, "Mom am I different from the other kids?"

Val stared down at her son and wrapped an arm around his shoulder to hold him close and not wanting to lie to her son she answered him truthfully, "yes Hiccup you are and have been since the day you were born." His head casted down and he just wanted to crawl under a rock now, but the mother would have none of that. She tilted her son's head up to look at her and told him sternly," and you should not want to be anything else."

"But I don't want to be different!" he screamed at her.

She smiled, "and why not?"

He pouted, "Because no one else is and I want to be normal like them."

"And that is what makes them boring, son. You being different is wonderful thing Hiccup and when you realized that you'll be glad of whom you are." She took a pause and when he did not seem happy with that answer she sighed and tried one last thing, "besides in all my travels I have met tons of people who are just as different as you Hiccup."

"Really?" he asked looking up at her.

"Really," she smiled standing up and holding her hand out to him, which he took happily. "This place needs more of this Hiccup."

"But mom you just gesture to all of me." She just winked at him as they walked back to their home. Glad that her little trouble maker was all smiles again, but she needed to have a serious talk to her spouse about the issue in their son's thinking. On their way home, all the seven year old could think about is how amazing his mother's adventures were and maybe it was not so bad to be different if there were so many out there just like him.


End file.
